Corporate Travel News For South Pacific

Boeing Research and Technology Australia (BR&T-Australia) announced (26-Jun-2017) it has moved its Brisbane based team into a new centre within The University of Queensland's (UQ) St Lucia campus. The move is the first time in the Asia Pacific region that Boeing has co-located research within a university. Boeing Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific president Maureen Dougherty stated the move would be of great benefit to both Boeing and UQ: "the opening of this centre on campus brings together Boeing and UQ researchers who will collaborate on the next great advances in aerospace". [more - original PR]

Northern Territory Government announced (23-Jun-2017) it will send representative to China to meet with a number of airlines in an effort to secure direct services between China-Darwin. Three public servants from the Department of Tourism and Culture and the Department of Trade, Business and Innovation will be part of the delegation, which takes place from Monday 26-Jun-2017. [more - original PR]

Regional Express (Rex) announced (26-Jun-2017) plans to reschedule some services to the middle of the day and increase Port Lincoln-Adelaide frequency from 49 to 51 times weekly, effective 17-Jul-2017, adding approximately 7000 seats p/a to the route. [more - original PR]

Australia's Minister for Urban Infrastructure Paul Fletcher stated (26-Jun-2017) Western Sydney Airport is expected to generate 20,000 jobs by the early 2030s. The new airport is scheduled to open in 2026 with capacity for 10 million passengers p/a. Initial works on the site will commence before the end of 2018. [more - original PR]

Qantas plans to increase its share of the Chinese market without impacting growth in other key markets (AAP, 23-Jun-2017). Qantas CEO Alan Joyce stated: "We have to make sure we are taking advantage of the Chinese market but not forget our other markets. Flexibility is key her.". Mr Joyce said the Chinese travel market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 13% over the next decade, which makes it a market the airline cannot ignore.

Qantas announced (23-Jun-2017) the inaugural group of startups and scaleups selected to participate in the AVRO Accelerator programme. Designed in partnership with leading corporate accelerator Slingshot, AVRO gives entrepreneurs the chance to work with Qantas Group business units to develop, incubate and scale their businesses. Six start up and six scale up businesses were selected from nearly 500 applications, and includes a mix of emerging and established businesses across traveltech, adtech, fintech, revenue management and data from Australia and USA. Examples of the organisations include: Aeroster, a tool for pilots, cabin and ground crew to view and share rosters with family, friends and colleagues; Coverhero, an insurance Robo-advisor that helps to understand, buy and manage insurance in one place; and easyshare, an online platform for bill splitting and payments. [more - original PR]

PNG Air received a sixth ATR 72-600 aircraft on 24-Jun-2017 (Post Courier, 24-Jun-2017). PNG Air COO Paul Abbot stated: "We are pleased to welcome the latest addition to our fleet and the opportunity that this brings to further increase capacity and frequency on our domestic schedule. This ATR will be used to help support the additional requirements for the recently won Newcrest Mining contract". The aircraft will now undergo modifications required to prepare the aircraft for commercial operations.

Jetstar Group CEO Jayne Hrdlicka warned (23-Jun-2017) of both a lack of and the impact of overpriced infrastructure throughout Australia. Ms Hrdlicka stated: "Australia needs quality and affordable tourism infrastructure like hotels, attractions or we risk falling behind. We cannot just rely on our natural attractions to help us win over the next 20 years. The second airport in Sydney is a real positive and we think they could look at Melbourne's second airport at Avalon for some inspiration. It's important that the new airport is purpose built and not gold plated as it is likely to be catering for low fares airlines in its first 10 years of operation, much like how Stansted and Luton airports cater for London's low fares flights and Heathrow focuses on the full service airlines. We also have continued to see airport fees and charges increase while airlines are offering fares at levels significantly cheaper than they were over a decade ago". [more - original PR]

Jetstar Group CEO Jayne Hrdlicka discussed (23-Jun-2017) the positive impact Jetstar's low fare philosophy is having on Australia's tourism economy. Ms Hrdlicka stated: "In FY2017, 37 million people will have flown with Jetstar, of these; 24 million Jetstar customers have paid under AUD100 (USD75.7) for a flight - that's two thirds of our customers. But it's not just consumers who benefit from low fares. It is the tourism operators, local businesses and communities that see huge benefits from low fares travel to their regions. For every AUD1 (USD0.76) spent on aviation, AUD10 (USD7.6) is spent in local communities. The stimulative effect of Jetstar is nowhere more evident than in the tourism-dependent economies of Gold Coast and Byron Bay. Since 2003, the year before Jetstar came into being; Gold Coast Airport processed 2.2 million passengers. In 2016, that number was at 6.4 million, an increase of 184%. Ballina Airport experienced 80,000 passengers in 2003. In 2016, it processed 480,000 passengers, an increase of 499%". [more - original PR]

Fiji Airways confirmed (23-Jun-2017) the acquisition of a CAE Boeing 737 MAX aircraft full simulator for the Fiji Aviation Academy. Fiji Airways MD and CEO Andre Viljoen stated: "This is one of the most important developments in Fiji Airways' and Fiji's aviation history. We are setting up a world-class aviation training academy which will have two full flight simulators installed during Phase 1 of the project. The partnership with CAE shows that we are progressing well with our plans. The next step will be the selection of a full simulator for widebody aircraft, followed by the development in Phase 2 of an 'ab-initio' cadet pilot training school with state-of-the-art fixed training devices." Both simulators for Phase 1 are planned to be installed by late 2018. [more - original PR]